tonight, we look to the time line for the truth. >> we think we have it very well under control. >> the very next day, his administration declared a public health emergency. >> what did the president do about the coronavirus? >> i issued a travel restriction from china. >> public health experts, they say he bought himself a little bit of time and then he just squandered it. >> what did the president say? >> it's going to disappear.

one day it's like a miracle -- it will disappear. >> and did it match reality? >> a cdc official said publicly that it was not a question of if this virus spreads, but when. >> how delayed actions and false statements from beijing to the white house contributed to missing supplies. >> we're running out of cases, equipment. >> slow testing and confusion about the best way forward. >> it's frustrating. it's disheartening. we can do this. we know how to do this. >> a cnn special report. the pandemic and the president. the human toll so far, more than 1 million u.s. citizens infected, and we just passed another grim milestone, more american lives lost in three months than during the entire vietnam war in more than ten years. the economic toll is also staggering. tens of millions unemployed.

the federal government handing out billion of dollars in stimulus checks and business loans. the president's top adviser and son-in-law, jared kushner, said the trump administration, quote, rose to the challenge, and this is a great success story, unquote. get it? is it? as president trump tries to steer the u.s. back to some semblance of normal it's worth taking a look at how he got here, what the president did, what he did not do, and how the united states ended up with at least according to official records, the most cases and the most deaths of any country. revelers shoulder to shoulder. celebrating a new year. that would bring a new virus.

, a new normal, emptying these streets. >> in early january, this is when the trump administration really gets the first word out of china, and it goes to the head of the cdc that there is this series of respiratory illnesses going around. they haven't identified it. and this is already a top concern to the health officials in the administration. >> the chinese government reported dozens of cases of pneumonia in the city of wuhan, closed down a market suspected as the cause, and assured the world health organization or w.h.o. that there was no evidence of significant human to human transmission. but as chinese president xi jinping's government was trying to contain the spread of the virus, it also was trying to contain the spread of the truth.

as cnn international correspondent david culver found out. >> reporter: it was back in late december when we sent a group message saying a test result from a patient quarantined at the hospital where he worked showed the patient had a coronavirus. >> days later dr. li was summoned to a police station and reprimanded for circulating rumors. >> on january 6th, robert redfield offers to send help, including cdc scientists to china to help. china does not want a cdc scientist to come in the country at that point. >> but the chinese government's break wall of deception could not stop the deadly virus from migrating beyond its borders. >> 21 people in hong kong returned from wuhan with fever or respiratory symptoms. >> still, the xi government insisted its investigations, quote, found no clear evidence of human to human transmission.

>> in the early days i don't think anybody knew for sure what to believe, so the concern was, are we getting the full story? how likely is this to be contagious? how likely is hthis to kill people? >> all seemed to leave u.s. disease experts some what the in the dark. >> based on the information the cdc has today, we believe the current risk of this virus to the general public is low. families sitting around the dinner table tonight, this is not generally something they need to worry about. >> but during that same teleconference, the cdc answered a handful of u.s. airports would start screening passengers arriving from wuhan. >> the new coronavirus is causing infections -- fever and pulmonary infections. >> u.s. agencies were warning the president about the novel coronavirus, according to "the washington post" in more than a dozen daily classified briefings.

>> they were calling attention to the threat of the coronavirus in a way that amounts to a fairly steady drum beat throughout january and february. >> so eventually alex azar, secretary of health and human services goes to the president to talk about this coronavirus issue that is emerging from china. the president is completely preoccupied with other issues. he wants to talk about vaping and the sale of flavored vaping products. and it just shows you how the president's focus was not on this coronavirus issue. >> which is worse -- the impeachment hoax or the witch-hunts from russia? >> his focus, much of it, was on the u.s. senate. >> and ready to present the articles of impeachment against donald john trump. >> in his view, it was the so-called deep state -- people in government who were hell bent to bring him down. so by the time the coronavirus pandemic really started to push

in the united states and scientists and experts were telling him of the problem, he saw some of these people as just an extension of the deep state, and so that led to, i think, some of the skepticism he had towards the advice he was being given. >> and china's government? in late january, still downplaying. >> health officials in wuhan held a press conference yesterday. they say this is preventable. they say this is controllable. >> the next day, the u.s. had its first confirmed case of the coronavirus. the president's response was to claim it was under control. he said he trusted the chinese government. >> are you worried about a pandemic at this point? >> no, not at all. we have it totally under control. it's one person coming in from china, and we have it under control. it's going to be just fine. >> okay. president xi -- there's just some talk in china that maybe

the transparency isn't everything that it's going to be. you trust we're going know everything we need to know from china. >> i do, i do. i have a great relationship with president xi. we just signed probably the biggest deal ever made. certainly has the potential to be the biggest deal ever made, and it was very interesting period of time. but we got it done, and no, i do. i think the relationship is havhave very, very good. >> we asked the white house to participate in this documentary, but they declined. on january 24th, chinese authorities initiated a lockdown of 30 million people in ten cities. including the presumed ground zero, wuhan. trump praised china, tweeting, china has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. the united states greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. it will all work out well.

but behind the scenes -- >> health professionals across the government were tracking what was happening in china and getting alarmed. >> some were sharing their fears in an email chain dubbed red dawn, originated by the chief medical officer at the department of thomeland securit. an email chain leaked to "the new york times." >> emailing to each other that this is going to be bad, and we, the scientific community have to develop some real advice to policy makers to try to mitigate the potential damage. >> you guys made fun of me screaming to close the schools, wrote a department of veterans affairs senior medical adviser. now i'm screaming close the colleges and universities. >> exactly what came to pass six weeks later, but at the time,

many in the trump administration, including some of the medical community, including dr. fauci, were not ready yet to declare that those kinds of steps would be required. >> and infectious disease doctor at the university of the nebraska shared this bit of dark humor. >> great understatements in history -- pompei, a bit of a dust storm. hiroshi hiroshima, a bad summer heat wave. and wuhan, just a bad flu season. >> david, hundreds of americans were just evacuated today from wuhan by the state department. what precautions are being taken to make sure they're not carrying the virus back with them to the u.s. >> they went through not one, but two health screenings here in china. one done by chinese officials the other by u.s. officials and they'll go through a third screening when they land in anchorage to get cleared to california. then they're going spend anywhere from 3 to 14 days in

quarantine. >> peter navarro screened a email to the security council and then it went out in which he was very clear, he detailed the potential for millions of deaths, 1 to 2 million deaths. he went through the economic costs, which he predicted would be staggering, in the trillions of dollars. the president was told about the existence of this memo, we have been told by sources and he was irritated the estimates had been put down on painer. >> that memo was dated january 29th. a day that also brought this -- >> the white house announced the creation of a coronavirus task force to deal with the threat here in the united states. >> in the final days of january, a world health organization emergency committee praised the chinese government's leadership, commitment to transparency, and saw no need for any travel or

trade restriction. and trump again told the country everything was fine. >> we think we have it very well under control. >> so the very next day after the president made those comments in michigan was when his administration declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency. >> in china, the doctor reprimanded for sounding the alarm was dying after being infected by a patient. >> struggling to communicate, he spoke with cnn briefly by phone. you can here the hospital machines pulsing in the background. [ speaking foreign language ] >> china's supreme court commented that in li's warning a month earlier had been heeded and action taken, quote, it might have been a fortunate thing for containing the new coronavirus. next -- >> once we saw that this

outbreak grew at exponential rates we knew this was going to be a rapidly disseminating virus. >> their hearts just sink when they're trying to use this test and it's malfunctioning. this is not a time for business as usual. unless your business as usual has always been about putting people first. find out how your lexus dealer can service your individual needs.

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february came in with a bang. >> i issued a travel restriction from china. >> the restriction stopped foreign nationals who had been in china from traveling to the u.s. the restrictions also started a clock. >> when you talk to public health experts, they really look with despair at those couple of weeks, because they say whatever your feelings were on the travel ban at the time, it was a perfectly fine and reasonable step to take, and he bought himself a little bit of time and he just squandered it. >> there were only nine known cases of the novel coronavirus inside the u.s. the first step to keeping that number low, according to the experts, was a working test fo the virus. >> testing was, is, and always

will be the corner stone of trying to stem the pandemic. you've got to identify the people that were infected. you've got to be able to isolate those folks and treat them. it all begins with testing. >> february 6th is when the cdc starts sending these test kits out to public health departments. >> but the tests, the only tests approved for use in the united states, were not working. >> their hearts just sink when they're trying to use this test it's malfunctioning. >> there was a test available from the world health organization, but the cdc did not choose to get it and nobody inside the government asked outside labs to help. >> officials were told not do it, that they did not need to do it, it's too alarmist. >> the delay in testing concerned the experts who now saw the virus spreading from human to human and quickly.

>> i think it was pretty clear in early february there was human to human contact. >> once we saw the outbreak grew at exponential rates we knew this was going to be a rapidly disseminating virus. >> eva li was working to figure out how many americans might catch the virus. those models projected between two and 10 million people in the u.s. would become infected. on february 9th she sent an email to the red dawn chain of health experts calling for social distancing. >> we need the citizens to know and practice social distancing in a way that best protects them. every action counts. >> it was a full five weeks later before president trump would take that step. >> thank you very much. >> that same day, some of the nation's governors met with dr. anthony fauci and cdc director robert redfield. they got some disturbing news. >> they gave us a pretty

detailed outline of what they felt was happening with this virus. we knew that this was going to be a serious crisis. >> it was exactly the opposite of what president trump was saying publicly. >> looks like by april, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. >> the president's cdc director contradicted him late that are week in an interview with dr. sanjay gupta. >> i think this virus is probably with us beyond this season or beyond this year and eventually the virus will find a foothold. >> very small number of people in the country now with it. around 12. many are getting better. some are fully recovered already so, we're in very good shape. >> he was of the view you could stop flights, build walls, and keep coronavirus from coming to the united states. >> the chances of that were near zero, partly because it was now more than two weeks since the cdc test had been approved and it was still not working

properly. >> over at the white house, robert redfield, who's the director of the cd, and alex azar, of health and human services are assuring others we're going get it fixed and quickly. >> not quickly enough. february 22nd, the food and drug administration or fda sent an expert to the cdc headquarters to help figure out the problem. >> there was contamination in the manufacturing process and that the cdc had actually violated its own manufacturing protocols in trying to produce this test, and that that is why the tests were malfunctioning. >> you have to wonder if president trump had been directly involved, or his staff had, and they understood that you only contain the virus if you understand its spread they might have pressed for more widespread testing earlier. >> in their defense there were indications it was going to be bad, it was going spread, but

there was no clear data even in february on exactly how it was spreading through the united states. >> but during the third week of february, public health officials were preparing for the worst, just in case. >> they gathered in the situation room to develop a table top exercise of what it would look like if a pandemic fully hit the united states. while the president was talking about 15 cases going to zero, they were talking about 15 cases going thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. >> two days later, dr. robert kadl kadlec, an assistant secretary at the health and human services spotted a red dawn email that sent off warning bells in the administration. >> they see an email about a patient in china who had shown no symptoms of coronavirus and yet had spread the virus to

family and friends. that means people who did not know they were sick were unknowingly spreading the virus. eva, is this true? dr. kadlec wrote to dr. eva lee. if so, we have a huge whole in our screening effort. >> she responded with a link confirming the story, and added -- >> simply, people are carrying the virus everywhere. >> that then sets in motion a greater urgency from the group that they've got to get to the president a plan to mitigate the problem inside the united states before it spreads further. >> it was now february 24th, and it was time, dr. kadlec and his colleagues decided, to tell president trump he needed to recommend social distancing. including shutting down big events and schools. but president trump was in india. >> the moment he got back to the

united states they were going sit down with him and try to move the president forward with it. but one thing happened, a doctor with the cdc got ahead of the messaging and warned publicly there was going to be a severe disruption the american life. >> we are asking the american public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this could be bad. >> the president was angry about that and said, why are they overplaying the problem? it's leading to the stock market crashing. >> breaking news -- >> the dawe ow is taking a dram hit down. president trump considered firing her, though he ultimately did not. >> if the president had been less concerned with what the warning sounded like and more concerned with the content of the warning, he might have concluded the cdc was right and moved much more quickly to

trying to mitigate the effects, trying to prepare the american people. >> instead, the day the president returned from india, he blamed the media, tweeting that msnbc and cnn are, quote, doing everything possible to make the coronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible, unquote. before railing at the media, the president was angry with dr. messionor. the president it seemed, considered anyone delivering facts the enemy. that weekend he held a presser completely opposite from what the experts are saying. >> when you have 15 people, the 15 in a couple of days is going to be close zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. >> the president also announced a new leader of the coronavirus task force. >> i'm going to be putting our vice president mike pence in charge. >> on that day of the return

from india, dr. robert kadlec and colleagues did not tell the president it was time to have social distancing. it would be three more weeks until the president took the steps they planned. >> i think the biggest question we'll always have is what would have happened if we started sooner? if we started a week earlier, the question would have been asked, how many lives could have been saved? according to some models, they say 50%, 60% in that first wave might not have been infected. >> if you started a process, started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. no one is going to deny that. but what goes into the decisions is complicated. >> so in late february, the president was still holding crowded rallies. his administration had not recommended social distancing and had not solved the problem with the test kits. then on february 27th, a

breakthrough in the form of a phone call arranged by dr. anthony fauci. >> the message when they get off the line is, we are not getting off the phone call until we fix the testing issue. you have the fda on this call redfield. it's striking this isn't happening until the end of february. but one of the solutions that comes out of it is the fda needs to loosen its regulations. >> that was a big deal. those regulations made it difficult for commercial labs to come into the process and scale up testing. the regulations were officially lifted on the last day of february. coming up -- >> anybody that wants a test can get a test. >> that was a surprise to people at the cdc. (vo) at farmers we've seen a thing or two. especially lately. we've seen you become sweat-pant executives, cat coworkers and pillow-fort architects. we've seen you doing your part. so, farmers will keep seeing you through. with fifteen-percent-reduced personal auto premiums and immediate savings through our signal app,

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two months after the trump administration first learned of the contagion taking over the globe, there were 72 known cases in the u.s. and one known death. but that was about to change. >> march was an explosive month for this virus in the united states. >> new evidence confirmed that the virus, after entering washington state and california was now spreading on the east coast, with the first reported infection in new york, and two days later, a second.

. >> we're seeing what he expected, what we anticipated, which is a continuing spread. >> in a new short weeks, new york state's second case of covid multiplied into hundreds, forming the nation's newest cluster. >> we will continue to do exactly what we're doing. >> but back in washington, d.c., the president had yet to publicly admit the noenormity o the crisis. >> there's a lot of things happening. they're happening quickly. >> a month before, a team inside trump's administration developed a aggressive plan to try to slow the spread of the virus through social distancing, a plan that would effectively shut down a big chunk of the nation's economy. but president trump was still resistant. >> so this is a critical period of time where the coronavirus continues spread and no real federal action is taken.

>> states begin competing. come mid march, supplies could become so scarce, the cdc would issue guidelines to health-care workers to reuse masks or use bandannas if necessary. >> that was unthinkable. nobody thought in the united states of america we would tell doctors and nurses, reuse your masks. >> part of the problem with the ppe is there's a total lack of clarity about the process. mike pence took over the task force. jared kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser has been running a shadow task force that many lea force. that leads to a lot of confusion. >> confusion that would continue to play behind closed doors and in front of the cameras. >> we're also considering the fact that -- 36,000 deaths due

to what's called the flu. >> the president visited the cdc and famously said, anybody who wants a test -- >> can get a test. >> and that was a surprise to the people at the cdc who were working on this issue. they didn't know the president was going say that. testing was certainly not at a point where anybody who wants a test can get a test. the tests are all perfect, just like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect. >> the tests were flawed. the tests didn't work. as a result a lost valuable time. people became infected. there are people walking around with no symptoms, no test, and they continued to spread the virus. >> it will go away. just stay calm. >> but a day after the president said it would, quote, go away, the country was wrestling with a new reality. t tom hanks and his wife, the nba

suspends its season. and the world health organization officially named covid-19 a pandemic. >> the president was still contradicting what was happening. >> some of the experts i talked to said, that was because the stock market was really driving the president's decision-making and they didn't want to do the kinds of things you needed to do to mitigate the spread of the virus because it would hurt the economy. >> pushing democrats to triple his request for funding. >> i asked for 2.5 and i got 8.3. i'll take it. >> trump signed in $8.3 million in spending for the virus, yet even then he continued to insis, falsely, no one saw this virus coming. >> very well. but it's an unforeseen problem. came out of nowhere. >> every help deemologist have

been warning for the last 20 years that a pandemic of this size and magnitude was inevitable. but when our leader denies or refuses to admit the problem is confusing at best is it is disastrous at worst. >> chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine. >> but perhaps the most confounding comments by the president in march surrounded his touting of an untested treatment for the virus. >> chloroquine. a lot of good things happening with it. >> which the fda later warned could cause serious health issues. >> we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. it would be a big game changer. >> "the washington post" reported president trump was so enamored with the drug he asked an acquaint from mar-a-lago to call the california governor

gavin newsom for a deal to buy tablets from india. after newsom got the call, he told staffers he might have been punked by a shock jock. such a deal never happened. >> hydroxychloroquine is a drug that's been used with great success for decades against malaria, lupus. it's basically an anti-inflammatory. >> is there any reason to suggest i might be used as a prof lax is? >> the answer is no. >> but the president wasn't the only one that month contradicting the experts. some of his political allies join in the too. such as congressman matt gates from flr who seemed to mock those taking it seriously. >> it's a great time to go out, go to a local restaurant. >> devin nounez one of his

closest allies telling people to go out and eat at restaurants when advisers telling people the exact opposite. >> -- did not fully grasp the initial gravity of the crisis either. >> excuse our arrogance as new yorkers. we don't think it's going to be as bad as other countries. >> why is everyone panicking. >> then it was the pro-trump media. >> i'm not afraid of the coronavirus. >> they're just looking for any and every way possible to bash president trump. >> they're accusing the rest of the mainstream media of fear mongering. saying democrats in the media are blowing this up because they want to create more chaos. >> i am far more concerned with stepping on a used heroin needle than i am getting the coronavirus. >> this disinformation took such a hold on the segment of the public, new polling data began

to worry leaders in the president's party. >> what the polling showed was that republicans were taking this virus far less seriously than democrats were, and what circulated to republicans is that their tone and message had to change on coronavirus, because denial was not going to be a tool for survival. >> but strict social distancing measures were. and as infections spread, some state leaders would begin to enforce them without the help of the federal government. >> reduce the social interactions that are not necessary in our lives. >> in a moment i'm going to be signing an order banning the gathering together of people over 100 people. >> march 13th, two days after the president announced travel restrictions on europe, the president made his strongest stance against the virus yet. >> today i am officially declaring a national emergency.

>> the president however stopped short of the social distancing plan public health officials had been hoping for. >> when you compare what we've done to other areas of the world, it's pretty incredible. >> but back in 2018, the trump administration had folded its pandemic office into a different office of the national security council. a grouch health experts who, according to their former senior adviser, could have made a difference. >> when you say me, i didn't do it. >> i think a practiced senior level white house pandemics office would have been able to understand exactly what needed to happen more quickly. >> we'd much rather be ahead of curve than behind it. >> march 16th, more than 70 days after the trump administration first learned of the virus, the president implemented what had become the nation's best tool to slow its spread. >> my administration is

recommending that all americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible, avoid gathering in groups of more than ten people. >> what is still so stunning is to realize this was on march 16th. recall that it was the end of february that his health advisers started talking about seeing these measures in place in the first place. >> this is a war zone. it's a medical war zone. >> there's patients building up in all of the corridors on oxygen. >> we're running out of medications, running out of equipment. >> i started receiving texts from doctors and nurses who i have known for decades. great, great, people. saying i am scared. one of them said, what i'm seeing is armageddon. >> on march 26th, the u.s. reached a somber milestone -- becoming the new global lead near confirmed infections.

the next day, trump approved a historic $2 trillion stimulus bill and pledged to approve the defense production act, which would allow him to enforce the production of ventilators. >> we have had nurses, doctors, publicly on television, pleading, say, we don't have what he need to protect ourselves from the virus. >> i have been asked by the tennessee department of health to velcro a dieper around my face because i don't have an n-95 mask to be able to wear to see patients. >> it was really perplexing and still is perplexing why the administration took until march 27th to invoke the defense production zblakt invoked at an early stage it could have been helpful in making sure people did not run out of supplies. it is a failure of the trump administration and is one of the most colossal mistakes i have ever witnessed, and unfortunately, it will cause

thousands of thousands of lives to be lost. next -- >> so what happened? >> we're not a -- we're a backup. >> it became an unholy mess. unless your business as usual has always been about putting people first. find out how your lexus dealer can service your individual needs. balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health.

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america now the deadliest nation in confirmed coronavirus cases. >> a record-shattering 6.6 million americans filed for unemployment last week. >> the "usns comfort". hundreds of hospital beds on that ship to provide relief with new york hospitals overwhelmed with coronavirus. >> the city's systems for burial completely overwhened.

brought to hart island for a temporary burial. >> it's like we're going into a war with no protection. >> bring us our ppe now. we need it. >> then the doctor took the phone and he said, i'm sorry, but there's no more pulse. >> on the last day of march, president trump was more serious than he had ever seemed to be kusing the pandemic as he addressed the nation. >> i want every american to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. we're going to go through a very tough two weeks. >> i think of all the briefings he had done, that was that was the best went. he was telling the trauth to th public. he was doing what he was supposed to do, prepare the public for what's to come. >> our country is in the midst of a great national trial unlike any we have faced before. shocking numbers when you see

100,000, 200,000 people over a very short period of time. >> one of the things watching his own hospital where people died of covid-19 i think brought home the reality of this in a way few other things did. >> five. five ventilators. oh, my god. >> i grew up right next to it. to see the scenes of trailers out there, freezers, nobody could even believe it. >> along with images of desperation, the president heard cries for help. >> it really just feels like it's too little too late. like, we knew. we knew what was coming. >> it's like military people going into battle. i would say you people are just incredible. >> yet, just two days before, the president was hurling insults at the care givers. >> where are the masks going? are they going out the back door? how do you go from 10,000 to 300,000? >> there comes a period of time when the president wants to lash

out to a new enemy every day. one day he's blaming, the quote, invisible enemy, the coronavirus. another day he's blaming the chinese. then he finds this bizarre line of attack against health-care workers. then it becomes a attack on it was the governors president trump had been attacking with a vengeance. the president initially push back against their requests for more medical gear saying they asked for too much and dismissed democratic governors in particular, such as governor of new york who had asked for more

ventilators. >> at the the current burn rate we have about six days of ventilators in our stockpile. >> a startling sign of the economic pain. >> this is the day we learned 6.6 million workers filed for unemployment in the u.s. for the first time, a 3,000% increase since early march. the president lashed out at the states. >> the states should have been ordering the stockpile. we are not an ordering supply. >> so what happened? one state began bidding against another and there were reports of states bringing in supplies only to have the federal government seize them for their own stockpile. it became an unholy mess.

>> that's what happened to the massachusetts governor. his shipment of masks were never received. >> our masks were confiscated in the port of new york. >> it's like being on ebay with 50 other steps bidding on a ventilator. >> a bizarre situation complicated by the president's son-in-law. >> when jared kushner made his first and only appearance, it did his father-in-law some damage because the federal government is supposed to be there to help the states, not to be in a fight with states. >> the governor expanded the expansion act to force six agencies to produce ventilators.

the federal government was finally taking steps, but they did not fully unleash the act. >> the latest issue is swabs and that he is not trying to force companies to ramp up production. >> there were unquestionable examples of the federal government stepping up. the u.s. army corps of engineers built field hospitals including this one at jafjaf it javits ce. and they talked about wearing facemask, but the president said he would not. it was hardly the first time he ignored public health advice.

>> by april 10 there were more than half a million confirmed covid cases in the united states, and 19,000 dead and yet testing remained elusive. >> we are leading the world in testing and we will keep it that way. >> the u.s. had ramped up testing, but were testing far few you are people per capita than countries such as south korea or italy. states sometimes with the federal government and sometimes on their own had received ventilators and medical supplies. >> how we are operating under these dire circumstances, we are

relatively comfortable with ventilators and ppe if the numbers stay down. >> new york times called the president on the crisis. >> two days later trump played a video that seemed to be blaming the press for down playing the crisis. the same press he had been attacking for overhyping the crisis in february. >> something that was noticeably missing from that video were the president's own comments where he down played and dismissed the outbreak in the end of february and beginning of march. >> you bought yourself some time. you didn't use the time to ramp up testing -- >> you are so disgraceful. we have done a great job. >> what we have done in these daily briefings, that one in

particular, is a president trying to rewrite history, saying he was warning all along about the coronavirus. >> there was also this. >> when somebody is the president of the united states, the authority is total. that's the way it has got to be. >> your authority is total. >> total. >> has any governor agreed that you have the ability to decide -- >> i haven't asked anybody. you know why? i don't have to. >> no one would agree with that including the president's conservative allies. >> as coronavirus cases climbed to nearly 600,000, another controversial decision. >> i am instructing my administration to halt funding of the world health organization. >> the fight with the w.h.o. is another part of looking to blame someone besides himself.

>> there are some medical experts who believe the world health organization could have and should have acted sooner. >> i worked for w.h.o. for ten years. i think they were late in calling this a pandemic. i think w.h.o. having lost a lot of its financial support over the years and having gotten a lot of support from china, i think w.h.o. was generous of the chinese reports of when the epidemic began. >> people do have concerns with the way w.h.o. was dealing with china during this outbreak. i haven't talked to any public health expert who thinks the right way to remedy that is to try to strip w.h.o. of funding. >> there was plenty of finger pointing. governor comeau wished he had raised flags earlier. >> i would feel better if i

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april, 2020. >> the death toll as of this morning has doubled in just the last three days. >> america was hurting. record unemployment. >> 6,648,000 people applied for unemployment. >> blooming death. not a good equation for a president running for re-election. >> he is frustrated by what we have seen happen in the stock market. the numbers filing for unemployment are incredible and that will hurt him in november and that's his fear. >> so he wanted to restart the economy to resuscitate his campaign. and the only way to do both? reopen the country as soon as possible. that seemed unrealistic when

models were predicting 100,000 or 200,000 deaths. according to "the washington post," an impatient president sought different data. "the washington post" is reporting that there was a different coronavirus model which shows that deaths would have already peaked and fewer fatalities than "the washington post" which affirmed sweptcism in the west winning like what dr. fauci and dr. birx were saying of the health crisis. >> as kevin said himself in that story, that was not true. he was taking the gates model from the university of washington and basically smoothing it out to show what is

actually happening. there is a difference between a forecast trend and what has actually happened. we didn't change anything based on that. >> we want to have our country open and return to normal life. our kroupt will be open. >> the administration announced a plan. >> our team of experts agrees we can begin our next front in our war. >> with no vaccine on the horizon, the country had to increase testing and trace contact. >> test, isolate and contact trace. >> we didn't do the first part of this well enough and this has affected everything else downstream. >> there hasn't been an effort to get in front of that. there has always been a couple steps behind.

>> testing was initially limited to small groups, health care workers, people who had known contact with a sick patient. or, this is crucial, people with symptoms. but now in order to reopen the country and prevent further outbreaks, the country needs lots of tests because, as scientists announced in mid april, people might be most contagious two to three days before they developed symptoms when they are asymptomatic. >> what is critical is this constant surveillance for asymptomatic individuals. >> constant surks aveillance an widespread testing so those with the virus could be immediately isolated from the rest of us to stop the spread. according to one study, the united states needs at least 500,000 tests to be conducted

every day in order to safely reopen. maybe more than that. >> we probably in this country need to be testing 1 million to 2 million people a day ultimately. >> i think we are going to have to have 300 to 500 million tests before we get out of this. sufficient quantity of good tests of high quality, easily available to anyone who wants one. >> listening to president trump speak about it mid april, it sounded like we had both quantity and quality. >> we have the best testing in the world. >> but that claim does not square with the facts. >> dr. anthony fauci is raising questions about the nation's readiness saying more testing is needed saying, quote, we have to have something efficient and

reliant and we are not there yet. >> excuse me. >> question -- >> quiet. >> the president also continued to clash with the governors who the president felt they should be in charge of. but the governors argued that they don't have the power of the defense production act. >> we are going to need more testing, faster testing than we now have. >> only the powresident has the power to force companies to make tests, reagents, swabs, to hire lab workers and to manufacture lab equipment. >> more help is needed from the federal government on testing. >> this is probably the number one problem in america and has been since the beginning of this crisis. >> this tension between state

and federal government has always existed since the founding of our country, but this is now life and death, and this question of who should i rely on to keep me alive. >> we spoke with several of the president's political advisers who says they believe the reason he is pushing it off on to states is because then the president won't be the one to deal with the fallout if there is one. >> this was back and forth between the governors. created gridlock and confusion. >> it's hard to argue there hasn't been lost time in this fight and who should be responsible and who is to blame. >> in some ways it's disheartening because we can do this. >> tens of thousands of protesters are showing up at the capital to protest the stay at home -- >> what happened april 17 didn't

help when president trump took to twitter. >> tweeting all in caps, liberate minnesota, liberate michigan -- >> these people want their life back. >> he sees some benefit in bolstering this anti-government message. he is encouraging people to go against what their own governors have said. >> even encouraging protesters to go against the white house's own guidelines. >> the plan you just made recommendations on doesn't make sense. we are sending completely conflicting messages out. >> that has been one of the issues. even though we are called the united states of america, that when it comes to all of these strategies for putting a stop to this outbreak, we have not been very united. >> working very hard with governors now with testing, going to help them out.

>> the governors and government seemed to unite a few days later. the president planned to use the dpa to force production of swabs for testing. federal testing labs were offered for some states to use. and $25 billion was allocated for testing. so by the end of april diagnostic testing was progressing, but not where it needed to be according to health experts. >> we are working with 220 labs around the country. >> we are doing more testing than probably any of the governors want. >> four days later the president announced a blueprint for testing putting the responsibility back in the hands of the states. >> we want to get our country open. >> a plan that had the administration taking a victory

lap. >> i think we have achieved the dirnt milestones needed. the federal government rose to the challenge and this is a great success story. >> the federal government has done a spectacular job. >> but the plan had medical experts reacting differently. >> the plan calls for around 7 million a month. you can see the delta. it is like four times off in terms of the amount of testing we need to do. >> it isn't perfect, and we are not there yet. but we will get there and soon i hope. >> they will need to. the end to the pandemic, the holds grai holy grail, is on the horizon. >> it can take years to make. hiv aids has taken 40 years and we still don't have a vaccine.

that's how challenging it can be. >> all of this is a race against time. to reopen, to get back to some semblance of normal and most importantly, to save lives. it will be a marathon the experts say, not a sprint. and with every step serious communication failures that took and continue to take the country offtrack. such as down playing the threat and severity of the pandemic. >> when it get warmer it goes away. i hope it does. high hydroxychloroquine. >> something that was warned against using it outside of a trial. and then the disinfectant situation. >> the disinfectant where it

knocks it out in one minute. is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? >> an unbelievable an perplexing moment that had people calling hot lines asking if they should be using disinfectant on themselves. >> the statements from the epa, and even themakers of lysol and clorox to warn do not try this. it could kill. >> requiring doctors and organizations to shift their focus from fighting covid-19 to warning the public not to ingest disinfectant. >> i wouldn't recommend the internal ingest yion of a disinfectant. >> we wanted to ask the white

house about all of this, but they declined to participate in this documentary. for now americans need to keep their eyes looking straight ahead to the finish line, listening to the experts and not getting distracted by confusing and unfounded messages. >> i don't think there is only one path to defeat covid. we need our leaders to be focused, serious, honest, to be able to deal with new fast moving scientific information. that's the path to defeat covid. >> why now in the middle of this pandemic are we investigating the record? while we were producing it, 1 million americans diagnosed with covid-19. and according to "the new york

times," cdc projections show more than 200,000 new cases and 3,000 deaths every single death projected every single day next month. startling numbers that remind us every day how lives are at stake and that's the reason that we do this now. not because we want to point fingers and blame the chinese government or president trump. but we don't want to have the same mistakes repeated and just in case there is another outbreak later in this year or next. we want to get the facts on the record especially when the president is apparently weeding out truth tellers such as the acting department general of health and human services that was telling a truth the president did not want told.

we want to remember what was done and could have been done faster or better or at all. welcome, i'm anderson cooper in new york. >> i'm dr. sanjay gupta. today's broadcast is being seen around the globe and streamed on cnn.com. >> when we did our first town hall on march